"Marooned" is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

track on Pink Floyd's 1994 album, ''

The Division Bell ''The Division Bell'' is the fourteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 March 1994 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and on 4 April by Columbia Records in the United States. The second Pink Flo ...

''. It is the only Pink Floyd track to ever win a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

Writing and recording

The piece was written by Richard Wright and David Gilmour. It has sounds that describe the setting as an island, such as the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing on the shore. It was composed while jamming aboard the Astoria in early 1993. Gilmour processed the guitar sound with a

DigiTech Whammy The DigiTech Whammy is a pitch shifter pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It was the first widely used effects pedal that could do foot-controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato ...

pedal to pitch-shift notes entire octaves."Sounds of Silence" interview, Guitar World, September 1994
, retrieved 28 July 2010 Also in the background can be heard wailing guitar effects by Gilmour, reminiscent of the song " Echoes". Wright's grand piano parts (originally played and recorded on a Kurzweil) were recorded at Olympic Studios in London. David Gilmour has mentioned that "pretty much" all of "Marooned" is improvised and that he "probably took three or four passes at it and took the best bits out of each".. Wright also said this was the first song to be mixed for The Division Bell in an interview with

In the Studio ''In the Studio'' is the third studio album by British ska revival band the Specials. It was released under the name the Special AKA in June 1984, their only album under that name. The album took over two years to produce before finally seeing ...

host Redbeard.

Reception

Stereogum opined that the instrumental "stands out primarily as a song that sounds as much like Pink Floyd as anything on their mid-'70s releases. The song roots itself to Gilmour's familiar lonesome melodic guitar descants threading themselves through the trademark mood setting and foundation of Mason's drum work and the invaluable Wright's keyboard deviations." Contrastingly,

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

wrote that " rooned is how you feel listening to this pallid, five-minute-and-thirty-second guitar solo." The instrumental won the

Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Award ...

at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards in 1995.

Live and other releases

This song has only been played live three times: On the two dates in Oslo, Norway (one of which is featured in the bonus features on the ''Pulse'' DVD) on the 1994 "The Division Bell" tour and at " The Strat Pack" charity concert, for the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar, where Gilmour played his "#0001" Stratocaster. An excerpt of the music is featured on '' Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd''. In 2014, for the twentieth anniversary of the original release of ''

'', a music video for the song was produced and released on the official Pink Floyd website as well as the anniversary box set of the album.

Aubrey Powell Aubrey Powell may refer to: *Aubrey Powell (designer) Aubrey Powell (born 23 September 1946) is a British graphic designer. He co-founded the album cover design company Hipgnosis with Storm Thorgerson in 1967. The company ran for 15 years u ...

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10c ...

directed the video, filming some parts in the abandoned city of

Pripyat Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1 ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

during the first week of April 2014 and on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

Personnel

* David Gilmour – guitars * Richard Wright – piano, organ and Kurzweil synthesizer * Nick Mason – drums Additional musicians *

Jon Carin Jon Carin (born October 21, 1964) is a musician, singer, songwriter and producer who has been a longtime collaborator with the bands Pink Floyd and The Who, and the solo careers of David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Pete Townshend, Eddie Vedder, ...

- programming and additional keyboards * Guy Pratt – bass guitar

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marooned (Song) 1990s ballads 1994 songs Pink Floyd songs Rock ballads Rock instrumentals Blues rock songs Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance Songs written by David Gilmour Songs written by Richard Wright (musician) Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Music videos shot in Ukraine Pripyat